System and method for adaptive content rendition

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer readable-media for adaptive content rendition, the method comprising receiving media content for playback to a user, adapting the media content for playback on a first device in the user&#39;s first location, receiving a notification when the user changes to a second location, adapting the media content for playback on a second device in the second location, and transitioning media content playback from the first device to second device. One aspect conserves energy by optionally turning off the first device after transitioning to the second device. Another aspect includes playback devices that are “dumb devices” which receive media content already prepared for playback, “smart devices” which receive media content in a less than ready form and prepare the media content for playback, or hybrid smart and dumb devices. A single device may be substituted by a plurality of devices. Adapting the media content for playback is based on a user profile storing user preferences and/or usage history in one aspect.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/192,760, filed Aug. 15, 2008, the content of which isincluded herewith in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to media playback and more specifically toadapting media playback to different devices as a user changes location.

2. Introduction

Media content has become accessible to many people in many places onmany different devices. Mobile content consumption has become especiallyprevalent as mobile devices grow more powerful and capable of outputtingnot only songs and pictures, but movies and television shows. As userstake these mobile devices through different environments such asdifferent rooms in a house or an office, each environment has apotential plethora of devices capable of rendering media content butwhich are unused or are displaying competing media. Often these devicesare already networked or capable of being networked with very littleeffort via DLNA, UPnP, or similar protocols. Such devices includetelevisions, amplifiers, media storage devices, digital photo frames,personal computers, speaker systems, cellular phones, appliances, etc.Any device capable of emitting sound or graphical output may be used tooutput media in some form or another.

The problem is that users change environments and change devices with nocontinuity between the media they are enjoying. A user is listening to afavorite song in the car from an iPod®, another not so favorite song onthe garage radio as the user exits the car in the garage, sees a fewmoments of an unrelated television show in the front room as the userwalks in the house, and sees a picture on the laptop screensaver in thebedroom. The cacophony of unsynchronized media devices is not unifiedand is often distracting.

Another problem is that users miss portions of a movie or other mediapresentation when they must temporarily leave in the middle. A typicalmovie is 90 to 120 minutes long, during which many people leave topurchase popcorn, go to the restroom, etc., and may miss out on acritical plot element or an exciting action scene. Epic moviecollections such as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars are long enough bythemselves, but are sometimes shown back to back making uninterruptedviewing even more difficult. Viewers sometimes have little control overwhen they must exit, so they cannot time their absence for a lessimportant segment of the movie.

Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an approach to drive multipledevices in unison and give each device instructions on how to render aparticular piece of media content a user is consuming to provide acomplete experience that follows the user between environments anddevices.

SUMMARY

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth inthe description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Thefeatures and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained bymeans of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out inthe appended claims. These and other features of the present inventionwill become more fully apparent from the following description andappended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention asset forth herein.

Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer readable-media for adaptivecontent rendition, the method comprising receiving media content forplayback to a user, adapting the media content for playback on a firstdevice in the user's first location, receiving a notification when theuser changes to a second location, adapting the media content forplayback on a second device in the second location, and transitioningmedia content playback from the first device to second device. Oneaspect conserves energy by optionally turning off the first device aftertransitioning to the second device. Another aspect includes playbackdevices that are “dumb devices” which receive media content alreadyprepared for playback, “smart devices” which receive media content in aless than ready form and prepare the media content for playback, orhybrid smart and dumb devices. A single device may be substituted by aplurality of devices. Adapting the media content for playback is basedon a user profile storing user preferences and/or usage history in oneaspect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a moreparticular description of the invention briefly described above will berendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which areillustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawingsdepict only exemplary embodiments of the invention and are not thereforeto be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will bedescribed and explained with additional specificity and detail throughthe use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example method embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates a timeline of transitions;

FIG. 4 illustrates different types of client devices;

FIG. 5 illustrates a user changing location; and

FIG. 6 illustrates multiple users changing location.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments of the invention are discussed in detail below.While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understoodthat this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled inthe relevant art will recognize that other components and configurationsmay be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system includes a general-purposecomputing device 100, including a processing unit (CPU) 120 and a systembus 110 that couples various system components including the systemmemory such as read only memory (ROM) 140 and random access memory (RAM)150 to the processing unit 120. Other system memory 130 may be availablefor use as well. It can be appreciated that the invention may operate ona computing device with more than one CPU 120 or on a group or clusterof computing devices networked together to provide greater processingcapability. The system bus 110 may be any of several types of busstructures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. Abasic input/output (BIOS) stored in ROM 140 or the like, may provide thebasic routine that helps to transfer information between elements withinthe computing device 100, such as during start-up. The computing device100 further includes storage devices such as a hard disk drive 160, amagnetic disk drive, an optical disk drive, tape drive or the like. Thestorage device 160 is connected to the system bus 110 by a driveinterface. The drives and the associated computer readable media providenonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules and other data for the computing device 100. In oneaspect, a hardware module that performs a particular function includesthe software component stored in a tangible computer-readable medium inconnection with the necessary hardware components, such as the CPU, bus,display, and so forth, to carry out the function. The basic componentsare known to those of skill in the art and appropriate variations arecontemplated depending on the type of device, such as whether the deviceis a small, handheld computing device, a desktop computer, or a computerserver.

Although the exemplary environment described herein employs the harddisk, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that othertypes of computer readable media which can store data that areaccessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memorycards, digital versatile disks, cartridges, random access memories(RAMs), read only memory (ROM), a cable or wireless signal containing abit stream and the like, may also be used in the exemplary operatingenvironment.

To enable user interaction with the computing device 100, an inputdevice 190 represents any number of input mechanisms, such as amicrophone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture or graphicalinput, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech and so forth. The input maybe used by the presenter to indicate the beginning of a speech searchquery. The device output 170 can also be one or more of a number ofoutput mechanisms known to those of skill in the art. In some instances,multimodal systems enable a user to provide multiple types of input tocommunicate with the computing device 100. The communications interface180 generally governs and manages the user input and system output.There is no restriction on the invention operating on any particularhardware arrangement and therefore the basic features here may easily besubstituted for improved hardware or firmware arrangements as they aredeveloped.

For clarity of explanation, the illustrative system embodiment ispresented as comprising individual functional blocks (includingfunctional blocks labeled as a “processor”). The functions these blocksrepresent may be provided through the use of either shared or dedicatedhardware, including, but not limited to, hardware capable of executingsoftware. For example the functions of one or more processors presentedin FIG. 1 may be provided by a single shared processor or multipleprocessors. (Use of the term “processor” should not be construed torefer exclusively to hardware capable of executing software.)Illustrative embodiments may comprise microprocessor and/or digitalsignal processor (DSP) hardware, read-only memory (ROM) for storingsoftware performing the operations discussed below, and random accessmemory (RAM) for storing results. Very large scale integration (VLSI)hardware embodiments, as well as custom VLSI circuitry in combinationwith a general purpose DSP circuit, may also be provided.

The logical operations of the various embodiments are implemented as:(1) a sequence of computer implemented steps, operations, or proceduresrunning on a programmable circuit within a general use computer, (2) asequence of computer implemented steps, operations, or proceduresrunning on a specific-use programmable circuit; and/or (3)interconnected machine modules or program engines within theprogrammable circuits.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example method embodiment. The first step isreceiving media content for playback to a user (202). A generic systemfor receiving media is a server that streams via the Internet orotherwise transmits media or portions of media to one or more clientdevices. In some cases, media is sent from a master server to anintermediate server, such as a home media server, before arriving at aclient device. Media may be stored on the client device or streamed fromone or more servers. The second step is adapting the media content forplayback on a first device in the user's first location (204). In oneexample, a piece of media content is a motion picture including an audiotrack and a video track. If the first device only has capability tooutput audio, then the video track is ignored and only the audio trackof the motion picture is played. One example server is a computer orcollection of computers on the Internet that streams media to clientdevices around the world. Another example server is a home media serverthat orchestrates the media content delivery and streams the motionpicture audio track to devices in and around a home. Smart clientdevices are capable of receiving unedited or unprepared media andpreparing the media, while dumb client devices are only capable ofplaying what they receive without any preparation. Smart and dumb clientdevices are discussed below. Any device capable of media output (such astext, still images, full motion video, slide shows, audio, rumble orvibration, flashing lights, etc.) may be used with this method.

The third step is receiving a notification when the user changes to asecond location (206). The first location and second locations may berooms in a house, inside and/or outside a house, cubicles, vehicles,offices, elevators, etc. Even what would otherwise appear to be one roomor location may be split into two or more locations for the purposes ofthese steps. For example, a long hallway with multiple digital photoframes or televisions hung along the walls may be split into multipleseparate locations.

The distance between the first and second locations can be very small.For example, both locations can be within a single room or vehicle. Inthis way the system can appropriately handle scenarios in which themedia content continuously follows the user. One specific example ofthis is a long hallway in a museum exhibit with a blend of differentvideo and audio rendition devices. As the user passes through the longhallway, short movements between locations can signal a change to asecond location. The minimum distance required to establish a changefrom a first location to a second location may be dynamic. The minimumdistance can be a predefined threshold, such as 2 feet or 6 inches. Theminimum distance can be determined in whole or in part by the placement,arrangement, and/or playback capabilities of the playback devices. Eventhe playback devices can be mobile as the user is mobile, which mayimpact the minimum distance between locations in real time.

In one aspect, sensing user movement is based on media content analysisand/or individual user analysis in order to transition on auser-specific basis. When multiple users are in the same location,tracking the user and analyzing his or her user profile may be performedin order to sense which user moves where. User profiles storeinformation such as user preferences, usage logs, user accountinformation, frequently consumed media, demographic information, digitalrights management licenses, biometric identification, etc. A user maystore preferences on a per-media basis, a per-location basis, or otherscheme of rules. Further, the media content itself may contain clues orhints to sense which user is viewing or listening to media. For example,consider a wife reading in the living room and a husband watching ESPN®in the living room at the same time. When the wife leaves to go to thebedroom, the system analyzes her user profile and the content of themedia (ESPN) to determine that she is not likely to be watchingtelevision, so the system does not adapt or transition media content toother devices in the bedroom. Assume again that the husband and wife arein the living room together. The husband leaves to go to the bathroom.The system analyzes his user profile and the content of the media (ESPN)determine that he is likely to be watching television. The system adaptsand transitions ESPN to output devices in the hallway as he makes hisway to the bathroom and in the bathroom as he arrives.

Sensors to determine when and where a user is changing location may notbe universally available, may not be sufficiently sensitive, or may notbe correct. In these and other situations, a user manually signals achange to a second location. The signal to a second location can be donewith the press of a button, a gesture, a speech command, or any otherinput. One way this may be accomplished is with a switch, button, orother user interface installed next to light switches and connected orcoupled to a server via a network or via the Internet. As a user entersa room, the user presses the button or flips the switch next to thelight switch which signals to a home media server wirelessly or via awired connection that the user desires the media to transition todevices in that room.

In one aspect, a third device assists in sensing when a desired specificuser changes location. The third device may be an electronic token orother device that communicates wirelessly with location sensorsdistributed in multiple locations. The third device may be a network ofweight sensors embedded in or under the flooring that tracks a user'smovement throughout a building. The third device assists in sensing auser's change of location based on one or more of usage logs, physicalproximity to the desired specific user, biometric identification, and/orother sensors for tracking an individual's movement currently known inthe art or yet to be developed.

The fourth step is adapting the media content for playback on a seconddevice in the second location (208). In one aspect, the media content isadapted by adding or removing elements of the media content based on theoutput capabilities of each device in the user's location. In a previousexample, a piece of media content is a motion picture including an audiotrack and a video track. If the second device only has capability tooutput audio, then the video track is ignored and only the audio trackof the motion picture is played by transmitting it to client devices forplayback or signaling to client devices which audio track to retrievefrom storage and where to start playback. On the reverse side, if themedia content is a song (audio only) and the second device is atelevision, the media content is adapted for output through thetelevision by playing the song and displaying associated content, suchas video clips, still images, text, etc. If the second device is apersonal computer, the media content is adapted for output by playingthe song, displaying video content, and opening a webpage for the artistor artists. Advertisements may be incorporated into the output on thesecond device if the original media content does not include outputmatching the device capabilities. For example, an MP3 containing audioonly which is output on a device having graphic capabilities allows forgraphic advertisements like a link to purchase the remaining tracks inthe album to be displayed.

Playback devices contain varying levels of sophistication. Some devicesare classified as “dumb”, some are classified as “smart”, and some arehybrids of the two. Dumb devices simply receive media content alreadyprepared for playback. A speaker and a simple photographic picture frameare examples of dumb devices. Smart devices receive media content in aless than ready form and prepare the media content for playback. Deviceswith processing units and/or network connections to request additionalinformation from network resources generally qualify as smart devices.Hybrid devices lie somewhere in between. A hybrid smart device may be asmart device that is only used as a smart device when the preprocessingsystem or server is overloaded and cannot preprocess the media contentin time. A hybrid smart device also includes devices which haveinadequate processing power to prepare all types of media content on thefly. One example is a high definition television set which can processand prepare still photographs by itself, but cannot prepare a highdefinition video stream by itself. The collective resources of multipleinterconnected smart devices may be pooled to provide greater ability.

The second device may be substituted by a plurality of devices. Wheremultiple devices are available in the second location, they play aspectsor portions of the media content as they are able. In the example of amotion picture, a digital photo frame shows the visual portion of themedia content while a home stereo system plays the audio portion.Multiple devices may share and/or coordinate playback of aspects orportions of the media content. For example, the user is viewing a movieon a television and moves to a room where displays are present andspeakers are present but they are not integrated into a single device.The display and speaker share playback of their respective portions ofthe media. The display shows the video portion and the speaker plays theaudio portion. Synchronized playback is generally preferred but notrequired. Overlapping audio playback from multiple devices with multiplespeakers could be confusing or annoying if it is out of synch.

In another aspect, adapting media content for playback is based on auser profile storing user preferences and/or usage history. A user mayhave preferences on a per-media basis, a per-location basis, or otherset of rules. For example, a user sets a preference that a specificmovie is only output on large screens, or specifies no media playback ofany kind in the bathroom, or sets a window of time between 2:00 pm and4:00 pm when the children are asleep that no audio is played back.

One additional aspect includes the further steps of establishing andupdating patterns of location changes based on usage history and currentlocation data coming from a sensor network, anticipating when the useris likely to change to a second location, and adapting the media contentfor playback in advance of the user moving to the second location. Userswho habitually follow the same daily routine are anticipated by thisaspect. Consider the example of a user who gets home from work every dayat 7:45 pm, turns on the 6:00 pm local news previously recorded by adigital video recorder, and goes to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Themedia content can be adapted in advance for devices in the kitchen.General or specific user preferences may also be deduced by trackingusage history. These deduced user preferences may be confirmed with theuser or may be simply put in place where the user can correct or erasethem. The user profile may be stored in a central location, on one ormore of the playback devices, or both. User profiles may be synchronizedbetween devices or synchronized with a central server after a certainnumber of changes, at a regular interval, or at the request of the user.

Of course, usage patterns are subject to change and may evolve overtime. For example, a university student has a different schedule everysemester and their routine changes based on that schedule. Usage historyand current location data can be used to tweak patterns of usage tomatch and anticipate the user's current routine.

The fifth and final step is transitioning media content playback fromthe first device to second device (210). One way to transition a song isto gradually increase the volume of the second device while graduallydecreasing the volume of the first device. Another way is to graduallyincrease the volume of the second device, leaving the first deviceunchanged. This allows for simultaneous playback on the first and seconddevices for a limited time. Simultaneous playback includes playback ofone or more media elements on the first and second devices for a limitedtime. For example, a video clip is composed of video elements and audioelements. A documentary can be played on a television set, but as theuser moves and the documentary is transitioned to a second device thathas audio capabilities but not video, only the audio element issimultaneously played back.

The limited time may be set by a user, may be a pre-defined time, may bebased on inactivity in the first location, etc. In one aspect,inactivity in the first location is indicated by motion or othersensors. In an energy conserving aspect, the first device is optionallyturned off or switched to a lower power mode (such as standby orhibernation for a personal computer) after transitioning to the seconddevice. For a video playback device, a lower power mode includes dimmingthe brightness.

FIG. 3 illustrates a timeline of two transitions. The rows represent thedevice 302, the content 304, and the context 306 as the media is playedduring the progression of time 308. The two vertical dashed linesrepresent when the user changes location. In the first position beforeany transition, the user is listening on an MP3 player in his pocket312. The selected MP3 file is Hammerhead by The Offspring 314 and thecontext is audio only 316.

Moving to the right through the first location change 310 to a hallway,the MP3 player comes along with the user in his or her pocket, but a newdevice is a photo frame hanging on the wall 318. The photo frame has noaudio output, but is capable of graphic display, so it displays thealbum art and/or lyrics 320 of the song. Depending whether the photoframe is a smart device or a dumb device, the album art and/or lyricsare prepared in advance by a server or by other devices or the photoframe can retrieve the album art and/or lyrics by itself. The context isthe audio continuing to play in the MP3 player plus the visual displayon the photo frame 322.

Moving to the right again through the second location change 310 to aliving room, the photo frame is not in the new location, but the MP3player is still in the user's pocket and a high definition television(HDTV) is in the living room 324. The HDTV is capable of full videooutput as well as high fidelity audio output, so the content displayedis the music video 326 of the Offspring song on the MP3 player. The HDTVis a smart device connected to the Internet or home server thatautomatically retrieves the music video and cues it to the appropriatespot to synchronize with the MP3 player. A central server may be used toaccomplish the timing and synchronization or the individual devices mayform a network to communicate with each other over a wired or wirelessconnection. The context of the media is the audiovisual display on theHDTV and the audio is turned off on the MP3 player 328 because the userset a preference to use the highest quality audio output, which is theHDTV in this case.

FIG. 4 illustrates different types of client devices and how theyoperate. A central storage 402 location contains a media database 404and a user profile database 406. The central storage has a CPU 408. TheCPU and the media and user profile databases may be wholly or partiallyintegrated with the central storage or may be completely separate. Inthe case of a dumb client device 410, the central storage selects themedia and uses its CPU to prepare and transmit it for output on the dumbclient device. The dumb client device simply outputs 412 to a user whatit receives from the central storage. A smart client device 414 has itsown CPU 416. The central storage transmits raw media to the smart clientdevice which prepares it for playback using its own CPU. Preparing itfor playback can include transcoding, downloading additional content,separating out sub-components of the content, reducing the bitrate ofthe content, etc. The prepared media is output 418 to a user. A hybridclient device 420 has a similar structure to a smart client device inthat it also has its own CPU 422. A hybrid client device may have a lesspowerful CPU, may lack an Internet connection, may house insufficientstorage, or have some other shortcoming. Alternatively, the centralstorage's CPU may be more efficient in preparing media than the hybridclient's CPU. Hybrid client device CPUs may be used on-demand to takesome of the load off the CPU of the central storage. The decision of howto utilize the CPU of a hybrid client device may be user configurable ormay be dictated by the central storage. When the media content isprepared, the hybrid client device outputs 424 the media to a user.Multiple smart and/or hybrid client devices may be networked to combinetheir processing power as needed to prepare multiple pieces of mediacontent or to assist in a processor-intensive operation.

Another aspect of hybrid devices is that not all of their features maybe under internal control. For example, even a smart device may have noway of regulating volume other than an external knob that only a usercan manipulate. In that case, a hybrid device is capable of doingeverything itself except adjusting the volume.

FIG. 5 illustrates a user changing location. A user 502 is first inlocation L1 504. The user is listening to a book on tape through aspeaker 506 in L1. A server 508 is providing the book on tape. Theserver contains a user profile database 508 a, a media content database508 b, and a device database 508 c. The user profile database can storeinformation such as user preferences, user personal information, usagehistory, DRM licenses or keys, playlists, subscription information,usernames and/or passwords to access premium content, etc. The mediacontent database may include a library of media files or pointers tomedia files in other locations on a network. The device database storesthe locations and capabilities of each playback device. For example, thedevice database is aware of the speaker 506 in L1 and knows that thatspeaker can only output audio. The server may periodically poll devicesin the device database to ensure they still exist, are still connected,and still have all the known capabilities. As new playback devices areconnected, they may advertise their presence to the server or the servermay detect them.

The user 502 is carrying an electronic token 510 which communicateswirelessly 512 with a location sensor 514 in L1. The electronic token isa way to identify a particular user's location. Other devices ormechanisms may be substituted for the electronic token and locationsensor, such as a biometric sensor or radio-frequency identification(RFID) tag integrated into a driver's license. The location sensor isconnected to the server and relays the electronic token's (and theuser's) location to the server. As the user moves to location L2 516,the electronic token communicates wirelessly with a location sensor 518in L2 which informs the server that the user has changed location. Theserver responds by polling its device database 508 c for availabledevices and their capabilities in L2 and discovers another speaker 520and a television 522. The server further polls that user's profile inthe user profile database and discovers that has set a preferenceprohibiting video display of any kind in L2. The server transitions theaudio book playing at the speaker 506 in L1 to the speaker 520 in L2 anddoes nothing with the television 522 in accordance with the user'spreferences. If the user had no preferences regarding showing video inL2, the server would have transmitted video to the television 522 aswell as audio to the speaker 520. The server's connections andinteractions with the location sensors and playback devices areillustrated in this example as direct wired connections but may also beimplemented as wireless connections or across a network. Portions of theserver may be integrated with the location sensors and distributedthroughout multiple locations in a mesh network. Parts of the serversuch as user profiles may be duplicated and stored in multiple devices.

FIG. 6 illustrates multiple users changing location. At time T1, U1 602and U2 604 are in the same location. U1 is watching a movie on thetelevision 606. The movie is stored on and streamed to the television bya home media server 608. This is all in a first room 610. A second room612 is nearby and contains a speaker system 614 and a laptop computer616. Even though U2 is in the room with U1, U2 is not watching the movieon the television. U1 is holding the remote control 618 for thetelevision, providing some indication that at least U1 is watching themovie.

At time T2, U2 604 a moves to the second room 612 a. Based on userprofile or some other indication, the home media server 608 a is awarethat U2 was not actively viewing the movie. Therefore the home mediaserver sends no signal to the speaker system 614 a or the laptopcomputer 616 a and continues to stream the movie to the television 606 aso U1 602 a can continue to view the movie in the first room 610 a.

At time T3, U1 602 b and U2 604 b swap rooms so that U1 is in the secondroom 612 b and U2 is in the first room 610 b. The home media server 608b is aware that U1 was watching the movie based on user profileevaluation and based on the fact that U1 is holding the remote 618 b.The server stops streaming the movie to the television 606 b, and adaptsthe movie for output on the speaker 614 b and laptop 616 b in the secondroom where U1 is now located. As the movie is adapted for output, it isstreamed to the speaker and laptop. Aspects of this invention mayprovide premium content to a user on a subscription basis. Control oftransitioning from device to device and location to location can becentralized to one or more servers or it may be decentralized anddistributed between the actual playback devices.

A practical application of the principles of this invention is thescenario where a family sits down to watch a movie together. The fatherstarts a movie streaming from a home media server or other server to thetelevision. Mid-movie, the sons needs to go to the kitchen to pop morepopcorn. Instead of pausing the movie and forcing the rest of the familyto wait while the son is absent, the son takes a portable media playeralong with him. The portable media player may be an iPod, PDA,Blackberry, an inexpensive device with a screen and speakers orheadphones, etc. One way the portable media player can receive the mediastream is via a mesh local area network distributed throughout the home.The portable media player allows the son to view a synchronizedduplicate version of what is being shown on the television and receivesessentially the same multimedia stream as the television. It might notbe the exact same stream if the portable media player has differentcapabilities as the television. For example, the television may have 7.1Surround Sound and a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio while the portablemedia player only has a monaural speaker and a 4:3 full screen aspectratio. While the multimedia stream is essentially the same, either thehome media server or the portable media player adapts the movie forplayback on the portable media player.

In one aspect, if the father fast forwards past a commercial in atelevision show recorded by a digital video recorder, the son's portablemedia player stays synchronized with what the rest of the family isviewing or it may continue normally independent of what the rest of thefamily is watching. The behavior of the portable media player may bebased on user preferences or user input. At any point, the son has theoption to disable the synchronization and view other portions of themovie or switch to an entirely different media. Assuming the son has notdisabled synchronization, when the son returns from the bathroom andrejoins his family, the portable media player turns off and the son'sview of the movie is uninterrupted.

One or more portable media devices may be designated as masters capableof controlling the playback of the group media presentation. Forexample, the father's remote control and the son's portable media playerare designated as masters, so either can send control signals to theserver to fast forward, pause, rewind, etc. Conversely, a device notdesignated as a master is a slave which may passively play media butdoes not allow for control of the media. A slave device may control theindividual's media playback but does not have control over the mediapresentation of the group.

In an aspect relating to movie theaters, a theater provides a servicefor viewers allowing them to temporarily exit the theater where a movieis being shown without missing a portion of the movie. The theaterselects one or more media streams for playback. Media streams are playedon the main theater projector and a wireless broadcast within theconfines of the theater. When multiple media streams are present, suchas multiple movies broadcast simultaneously to correspond with multipleindividual theaters in a cinema complex, each stream may be broadcastwirelessly on a different channel or using a different wirelesstechnology. Multiple signals may be multiplexed in one, as is known inthe art. Media streams can be broadcast using a mesh Bluetooth network,802.11 network, or by a simple audiovisual broadcast. In addition to themain projection display of the movie, the theater provides portabledevices capable of displaying the movie synchronized with the maindisplay. Portable devices may be distributed to each moviegoer or may belocated near an exit, hanging in a wall-mounted charging station forexample. Digital projection theaters already have a digital stream whichmay be duplicated for broadcast to portable devices. As a user exits thetheater, he or she takes one of the portable devices as he or she leavesand the portable device instantly starts synchronous playback of themovie. In the case of portable devices waiting in a charger, the devicestarts playback when it is removed from the charger. In the case ofportable devices distributed to each moviegoer, playback on the portabledevice could be triggered by a button or a wireless signal when the userstands up or exits the MOM.

The portable device may store a copy of the movie internally and rely ona wired or wireless cue for where to start playback. As viewers need toleave to go to the restroom, to purchase concessions, or to attend tocrying children, etc. viewers can still watch the movie on the portabledevice and not miss any of the plot or action. Unlike the example of afamily watching a movie where the portable device may be a master andcontrol playback, in a movie theater scenario, the portable devices areslaves only and have no control over the movie or how it is played back.They merely synchronously display the movie in a second location. As theviewer returns, the portable device is returned to the charging stationand the portable device turns itself off or the viewer manually turnsthe device off.

If wireless signals are used, the signals may be encrypted to preventoutside parties from receiving the signal and viewing the movie forfree. Portable devices may have an integrated remote homing feature tofind the location of misplaced devices. Portable devices may include analarm if taken from the building or may trigger an external alarm iftaken beyond a certain threshold. Access to such portable devices may beon a subscription or pay-per-use basis. Alternatively, access toportable devices with small screens may be complimentary with theadmission price, while larger screens and/or higher quality audio areprovided for a fee. To prevent theft of such portable devices, accessmay be granted only after swiping a credit card or receiving some typeof deposit. If the unit is not returned then the credit card is chargeda penalty fee or the deposit is retained.

Because many moviegoers already have cellular phones or other devicescapable of movie playback, a movie theater could provide a code, URL, ora phone number to call to provide the same service as described above,but streamed through the moviegoer's own device. The provided code, URL,or phone number may be valid for only the duration of the show.Alternatively, the code, URL, or phone number is good for only one useand allows the moviegoer to stream or download up to 5 minutes of themovie (or some other duration) before it is disabled.

In one aspect, a home media server stores media and streams it to clientdevices. In another aspect, the client devices contain their own storageand the home media server sends signals to the client devices indicatingwhich media to play and where in the file to start playback. Beyond ahome, a network server can be used in place of a home media server. Anetwork server coordinates with and streams media as needed to devicesin multiple locations to provide a seamless media playback experience.In addition to streaming, the network server prepares media for playbackon dumb client devices. Other ways of media control are known in the artand may be applicable.

Embodiments within the scope of the present invention may also includecomputer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executableinstructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readablemedia can be any available media that can be accessed by a generalpurpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and notlimitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM,CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carryor store desired program code means in the form of computer-executableinstructions or data structures. When information is transferred orprovided over a network or another communications connection (eitherhardwired, wireless, or combination thereof) to a computer, the computerproperly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, anysuch connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofthe computer-readable media.

Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions. Computer-executable instructions also includeprogram modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or networkenvironments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs,objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particulartasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executableinstructions, associated data structures, and program modules representexamples of the program code means for executing steps of the methodsdisclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executableinstructions or associated data structures represents examples ofcorresponding acts for implementing the functions described in suchsteps.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of theinvention may be practiced in network computing environments with manytypes of computer system configurations, including personal computers,hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by localand remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwiredlinks, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

The various embodiments described above are provided by way ofillustration only and should not be construed to limit the invention.For example, the processes described herein may have application in homeentertainment systems and comprehensive, immersive media systemsbridging homes, vehicles, public places, offices, etc. Those skilled inthe art will readily recognize various modifications and changes thatmay be made to the present invention without following the exampleembodiments and applications illustrated and described herein, andwithout departing from the true spirit and scope of the presentinvention.

We claim:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, at a media server, anotification that a user, consuming media content via a first device ata first location, has moved to a second location; determining, via aprocessor and based on an analysis of a user profile and the mediacontent, a likelihood the user wants to continue consuming the mediacontent at the second location; and when the likelihood is above athreshold: adapting a format of the media content for playback via asecond device at the second location based on display characteristics ofthe second device, to yield adapted media content; and transferringpresentation of the media content from the first device to the seconddevice such that the adapted media content is displayed on the seconddevice and not on the first device.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinthe first device and the second device are one of a dumb device thatreceives media content prepared for playback, a smart device thatreceives media content in a less than ready form and prepares the mediacontent for playback, and a hybrid smart/dumb device.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the second device comprises a plurality of devices. 4.The method of claim 1, further comprising sensing user movement based ona combination of media content analysis and individual user analysis. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein adapting the format of the media contentcomprises one of adding and removing a media element of the mediacontent based on the display characteristics of the second device. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the first device and the second deviceblend media content from more than one user in a same vicinity.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising turning off the first device aftertransitioning to the second device.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereintransitioning the media content comprises simultaneous playback of mediaelements on the first device and the second device for a limited time.9. The method of claim 1, wherein adapting the format of the mediacontent is based on the user profile comprising one of user preferences,user demographic information, media keys, subscription information,credentials, and usage history.
 10. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising: updating patterns of location changes based on usage historyand current location data received from a sensor network; anticipatingwhen the user is likely to change to an expected location; and adaptingand transitioning the media content for playback on a third device atthe expected location in advance of the user moving to the expectedlocation.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the user profile is storedin one of a central location and a playback device.
 12. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the notification is a manually initiated signal fromthe user.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein a user tracking devicesenses when the user changes location.
 14. The method of claim 13,wherein the user tracking device senses when the user changes locationbased on one of usage logs, physical proximity to the second device, andbiometric identification.
 15. A system comprising: a processor; and acomputer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the processor to perform operationscomprising: receiving a notification that a user, consuming mediacontent via a first playback device at a first location, has moved to asecond location; determining, based on an analysis of a user profile andthe media content, a likelihood the user wants to continue consuming themedia content at the second location; and when the likelihood is above athreshold: adapting a format of the media content according to displaycharacteristics of a second playback device at the second location, toyield adapted media content; and transferring presentation of the mediacontent from the first device to the second device such that the adaptedmedia content is displayed on the second device.
 16. The system of claim15, wherein the notification is received from a sensor configured tosense user movement based on media content analysis and individual useranalysis.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein transitioning the mediacontent comprises simultaneously playing the media content on the firstplayback device and second playback device for a limited time.
 18. Acomputer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, whenexecuted by a computing device, cause the computing device to performoperations comprising: receiving a notification that a user, consumingmedia content via a first device at a first location, has moved to asecond location; determining, based on an analysis of a user profile andthe media content, a likelihood the user wants to continue consuming themedia content at the second location; and when the likelihood is above athreshold: adapting a format of the media content for playback via asecond device at the second location based on display characteristics ofthe second device, to yield adapted media content; and transferringpresentation of the media content from the first device to the seconddevice such that the adapted media content is displayed on the seconddevice.
 19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein alocation of the user is based on one of usage logs, and biometricidentification information received from a tracking device.
 20. Thecomputer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the notificationfurther causes a media server to turn off the first device aftertransitioning to the second device.